Power Rangers: The Next Generation
by xxgreenandpinkxx
Summary: The next generation of Power Rangers is here! *This story is not canon or related to any other Power Rangers season. Its my re imagining of the original Mighty Morphin. **The story is escalating much quicker than originally anticipated because i decided to cut it short but still wanted the chapters to be exciting without having too much unnecessary fluff.
1. Chapter 1

Power Rangers: The New Generation

Chapter 1 - Origins

Over a thousand years ago in a kingdom far, far away there was a man.

He was not just a mere man, he was an Indian sorcerer who was especially gifted in foretelling the near and the distant future.

One clear night he had a vision, a vision more terrifying than any other he had ever received. This vision contained images of horrendous monsters of epic proportions coming to Earth and destroying everything in their path.

He of course alerted the townspeople immediately, wanting to warn as many as he could before the vision came to pass. But the things he saw only frightened the people and caused them to fear him instead. To soothe their fears the townspeople decided it was in the best interest of them all too simply kill the sorcerer.

They thought they were rid of him and his nightmare visions by burning him at the stake but he was a sorcerer after all …

He went to another land and hid himself away there. Soon after his arrival another vision came to him. This vision was about him and contained information on how to use his extraordinary abilities to save the Earth from the impending doom.

Using his powers and future knowledge the sorcerer was able to create what he saw as the Earth's salvation. His creations would come to be known as the Power Rangers.

Five teenagers from nearby villages who were exceptional in different ways all suddenly awoke at night at the exact same time.

One moment they were in their bedrooms and then suddenly they found themselves standing in a dark, empty room. They did not even have time to be frightened or even to realize that others were there before they were transformed.

They were given enhanced abilities, unusual weapons, protective suits and masks to hide their identities. As the chosen ones, their new mission in life became hardwired into their brains and would be passed onto their descendants. That mission was to stop the impending alien threat at all costs.

With their new powers they were ready when the invasion came. They defended their village from the evil creatures, time and time again, until one by one they were each eliminated.

After them, more were chosen and so the legend continued on, until March 1ST 2016 when the newest Red Leader was activated.

A week before this day, his sixteenth birthday, before the headaches, the voices and the shakes, he had received a package in the mail…

"What the hell is this?" Andrew thought, looking at the small brown package addressed to him, as he stood on the front porch of his house collecting the day's mail. It was small, not bigger than his hand and was blank save for his name. He looked around the street, expecting to see one of his friends hiding in a nearby bush and laughing, just waiting for him to open this joke gift. But as he looked around, he saw no one. The street was eerily quiet. Usually there were people coming and going, walking their dogs, checking their mail, waiting for a bus … something. He looked back down at his package and wondered what it could be and who it could be from. Just then, his front door burst open and his younger sister Emma came running out.

"Is it here yet!? Is it here yet!?" she cried, her blond ponytail swinging as she raced towards him.

"What?" he asked, as she grabbed the mail out of his hand, including the package.

"No!" he shouted grabbing it back as she started to look at it.

"What?" She was surprised at his reaction, "I was just looking. What is it?"

Andrew looked down at the package in his hands before placing it slowly in his pocket. For some reason, he felt compelled to hide it.

"It's nothing. Just an early birthday gift from grandma and grandpa", he replied.

She looked at him suspiciously before going back into the house with the rest of the mail, still searching for her letter. Andrew turned to follow her in, but when he got to the door he paused. The wind started gently blowing through the trees as he looked down the street and then at his pocket. He went inside and shut the door.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 – Red Leader

Andrew didn't know what had happened to him. He was freaking out. He couldn't tell anyone though. It was just all too weird.

It had happened on his 16th birthday. One moment he had been out at a house party celebrating with his friends, the next he began shaking uncontrollably and had escaped to the bathroom to hide. While in there he began hearing voices, not from the people outside the door, but voices coming from inside of his head. The voices were whispering to him, whispering things about monsters, changes and duty. He began panicking and ran out of the bathroom and then straight for the front door, ignoring his friends' surprised protests as he raced by them.

Once safely home, having run the whole way, he first assumed he had simply drank too much, and then that someone had spiked his drink and this was all some weird side effect of some kind of drug. He paced around his room twitching, trying not to wake his parents sleeping soundly down the hall. Any loud noise from him this late would send them into his room, to scold him for partying on a school night. He couldn't let that happen, couldn't let them see him in this weird drugged up state. He climbed into bed, still shaking, still hearing the voices whispering. Maybe if he went to bed and had a good nights' sleep he would wake up fine, the drugs having left his system.

This hopeful belief unfortunately did not come to pass. He woke up the same way he had gone to bed. His parents saw him that next morning and assumed he had the flu and was delirious from fever. They let him stay home from school that day. He stayed shut up in his room, away from his family and refusing to see a doctor. But his ailments only lasted for the day before simply vanishing. His worried parents were amazed and relieved to see that he had recovered from his sudden illness so quickly. He was back to school the next day, but he wasn't truly better.

Andrew discovered, purely by accident, that he could now crush things with his fist and his foot and even his head, with just a touch. The morning that the voices in his head and the shaking had subsided, he had simply opened his bedroom door to let his parents know he was good to go to school, when the entire door came off its hinges and he found himself holding it up by the knob. Panicking, he had tried to shove it back into place and ended up instead breaking it in half.

Somehow, he had gotten super strength.

As if suddenly acquiring super strength wasn't weird enough, the strange package he had received in the mail a week ago and had left unopened had started glowing red.

He came home from school that day, being careful to touch as little as possible after breaking several pens in a row in his first class. Upon entering his room, he saw that his little package was glowing. Thinking that this was all definitely a dream and that maybe he really was still delirious from unknown drugs, he finally opened the package to find what appeared to be a glowing red rock inside.

When he touched the rock he changed. He literally transformed. Gone were his red t shirt and blue jeans and in their place was suddenly a red power ranger suit. The suit exploded on and off of him as he clutched the glowing rock. His brown eyes looked frantically around his room as if searching for answers as he wondered yet again, what the hell was wrong with him.

Andrew skipped dinner with his family that night, claiming he had too much homework. He didn't sleep that night either. It took him hours of effort, after accepting that this was not a dream, but he eventually mastered it. He learned how to control it. The rock had ceased glowing by itself and he now discovered that he had to hold the red rock and picture himself in the suit for it to glow and him to change. Now that he could control it, he started to wonder what he could really do with it and his new strength.

Thanks to the hardwired mission directives placed in his brain by his predecessors, he knew that he was the first ranger of this generation to change and therefore the leader of the pack. It would be up to him to find the other rangers and assemble the team before Earth was again invaded by monsters. Even knowing this, he knew that the first time he came face to face with a monster would be the most terrifying moment of his life. He sincerely hoped he would be able to face the challenges ahead of him bravely, and come out alive.

He hoped all the Power Rangers would be found and ready in time for the next invasion. He did not think this was something he would be able to face alone. Hopefully, they would all be able to face the challenges ahead of them as the hero's they were destined to be.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 – The Other Rangers

It was the second week of July, a week before Logan's sixteenth birthday when he received a package in the mail. It was small, not bigger than his hand and had only his name on it, not even a stamp. He wondered what it could be. Thanks to his impulsive nature he did not wonder long, as he ripped it open right there on his doorstep.

Inside was a box no bigger than his hand and whatever was inside felt slightly heavy. He opened the box and discovered a rock lay inside. But it was no ordinary rock. It had four corners with a rounded black middle and inside the middle was what looked like the outline of an animal. Logan couldn't be sure it was an animal because it didn't look like any animal he had ever seen. It was a beast. A monster. Yet it wasn't… The beast looked angry, but also somehow human.

Logan put it in his room and didn't think about it again until a week later when he began hearing whispers in his head and the rock began to glow.

3 months later on October 2th, Britney became the 3rd Power Ranger: the Yellow Ranger.

A few weeks after Britney, Jared accepted his destiny as the Blue Ranger.

One month later …

"I've almost got her", Logan said. He was sitting at a desk, with his hands balled into fists. His eyes squeezed shut, concentrating hard on the Pink Ranger. Then he opened his eyes a second later, exhausted. "Damn she's good," he panted from the mental effort he had made, running his hands through his shaggy black hair. "She's totally blocking me with her mind."

"She can do that?" Jared asked, confused. "I thought her powers wouldn't come until her 16th birthday? And that we've determined her birthday hasn't happened yet."

"It's not a power … at least I don't think it is," Logan said frowning, "It's just that when I try to enter her mind, I hit a wall. She may not be consciously trying to keep me out, but I'm blocked nonetheless."

"Do you know who SHE is yet?" Britney asked, leaning against the door in the large empty classroom with her arms crossed, frowning at him.

"No." Logan sighed. "It's a very solid wall."

Andrew had been silent the whole time, thinking. "Is there another way?" He asked.

"What do you mean?" replied Jared.

"Is there another way to tell, something we could do to make her show herself early?" Andrew pondered.

"I don't know?" Logan said doubtfully. "We might just have to wait until her birthday, unless she lets me into her mind so we can identify her now."

Jared suddenly jumped up from the desktop he had been sitting on near Logan. "I've got it!"

"What?" Britney asked, standing up straight and tucking a strand of brown hair behind her right ear.

Jared turned to Logan, "Remember how you found us?"

"What do you mean?" Logan asked, confused.

Jared sighed impatiently, "Remember how you accidentally set off that alarm in our heads last month? When you got in a fight with those guys at the bar and you needed help, you set off an alarm or distress call that only we could hear? Remember how it hurt our heads?" Jared implored, looking to the others for recognition. "People around us could see we were suddenly in pain, but they couldn't see why. And we knew where Logan was right away, and we came running to help even though we didn't understand what was happening. I hadn't even had my birthday yet, but I still heard this call."

"That's right!" Logan said, his eyes lighting up.

"Yeah, my head still hurts from that!" Britney scowled at him.

"One problem," she added thinking, pacing around the room. "What if she's not anywhere near us when he does this? Then we won't see her coming and we can't stay in this room much longer, there's a class coming in next period. Also, can you send out this distress call to just her? Or do I need to hear it in my head again, because I really would rather not experience that horrible noise outside of a life or death emergency."

"Ok, wait," Jared said slowly, a plan forming in his brain as he looked around the room, "I have an idea."

Taking last year's yearbook from a shelf underneath of the large bay window at the back of the room, Jared came back to the others and took out a pen from his backpack. He looked at everyone seriously and said, "We have to narrow it down to who it could be, since we don't have time to wait anymore. Commander Vannick said the next attack was coming soon. Really soon. We need everyone to be ready and at full strength."

Andrew, Britney and Logan watched Jared somberly, knowing that this was a serious matter and that he was right. Their first battle together had almost ended in Logan's death, since they were unprepared and outnumbered.

Jared continued, knowing he had everyone's full attention. "We need to figure out what girls in our grade have not had their 16th birthday as of today."

"Courtney hasn't," said Britney thinking hard, "her birthday is at the end of the month."

"Paige's birthday is the day after Courtney's," said Jared.

"Carly Jackson's birthday is on December 12th," said Andrew.

"Odette Simpson's birthday is December 7th," Britney added.

On it went, until they had the names of 10 girls from their school on the list.

"Crap, we're screwed," said Logan, looking at their list of names. "We can't keep track of them all, there's just not enough time!"

"No," said Britney, "We can do it. Courtney's birthday is coming up, so I can stay close to her. Or Logan, you have to get near her soon and try to do your little Jedi mind trick."

"I don't know," he said, looking uneasily at his friends. He wasn't exactly fiends with the popular Courtney. "She might get suspicious if I start hanging around her at school. She will especially be suspicious if I'm literally following her after school to try the mental alarm."

"Well if you do it right you'll only have to do it once for us to know. And we'll be there to get her out of any crowds quickly", said Britney firmly.

"Well," Logan said, hesitating.

"We're doing it," Britney said, narrowing her eyes at him and folding her arms.

"Ok," Logan said, giving in. It was always best not to argue with Brit when she was stubborn about something. She had a temper that was almost worse than his own. He had enough sense to know that now was not the time to start a fight.

"When?" Jared asked, trying to keep them focused.

"The sooner the better," Andrew answered, standing up tall. "If her birthday is coming up, we need to be prepared to find her and train her immediately if she is the one. We don't have time for her to panic like we all did. She won't have that luxury. There's a battle ahead."

The next few days were spent trying to get near Courtney. Britney hung around her and her friends more than usual, asking Courtney if she had gotten any strange packages in the mail, and since the boys weren't exactly buddy buddy with her they just sat near her at lunch looking for signs of … anything. On the fourth day they decided to just try Logan's mental panic button. The bell rang signalling the start of lunch and Jared, Andrew and Britney headed to the cafeteria to look for Courtney while Logan waited in an empty classroom for the signal to start the distress call. Once in the cafeteria, Britney and the boys found Courtney quickly at her usual table and ushered her out claiming they all desperately needed her help on an assignment. Courtney went with them, although very confused, since she didn't even have any classes with Andrew or Jared.

They took her to the classroom Logan waited in and the second he saw them all, he closed his eyes and tried to direct his distress signal only to Courtney. Unfortunately, it did not go as planned. Andrew, Jared and Britney all grimaced at the same time and put their hands to their heads in pain while Courtney only looked around at them all like they were nuts. Logan opened his eyes after a few seconds to see if it was working, saw that it wasn't and immediately stopped the mental distress call. He stared at Courtney and she stared at him while the others all straightened up and tried to look like they all got horrible headaches out of nowhere all the time.

No one said anything for a moment. Logan finally managed to stutter out, "We uh, we don't need help anymore. I figured out the assignment on my own. Thanks for coming. Bye."

Courtney gave them all a suspicious look and just turned around and left without speaking. She had more important things to do than try to figure out what these people were up to. Exams were coming up soon, not to mention winter break right after. She still needed to figure out where to spend her vacation time. Should she go skiing with her family and older brothers' friends in Colorado or go with her own friends to Mexico? Such hard choices…

Now that the team had ruled out Courtney as the pink ranger, it was back to the list. It was time to start keeping tabs on Paige now, as her birthday was the next. They decided to try the same thing with her the next day at lunch that they had just done with Courtney. It was an effective, if slightly embarrassing, method.

It was the next day, and the bell had just rung for lunch. Logan went back to the same classroom to wait and the rest of the team headed to the cafeteria to get Paige. Once in the cafeteria, Britney was the first to realize that Paige wasn't there.

"Ok guys, spread out. She's average height and has dark blond hair. I think I saw her this morning in first period wearing a red sweater. Or maybe it was a black sweater. She can't be that hard to find." Britney said, looking around the room.

"That the most generic, unhelpful description you could have given," Jared replied drily. "She MIGHT be wearing a sweater of some color." Jared mocked, "Thanks, super helpful."

When they had no luck in the cafeteria, they expanded their search to include the school halls and grounds. After 15 minutes of checking every possible classroom and outside bench, they gave up. It was certain. Paige had left the building.

"Crap! What are we going to do!?" Jared exclaimed, staring around wildly, hoping that Paige might just pop up.

Andrew was grim, "We have to find her." He looked at Britney. "Where do you think she could have gone?"

"Well I'm guessing out to lunch since I don't see Odette or Andrea anywhere either," Britney replied, naming the girls Paige usually ate lunch with. Britney felt guilty, up until she had become a Power Ranger, her and Paige had been inseparable. They used to do everything together, including eating lunch. Now Brit had a new crowd, one Paige wasn't part of, at least not yet.

Back in the classroom, Logan was getting impatient. He hated waiting; not knowing what was going on. He figured they would be with her by now, so it should be ok to start…

Logan closed his mind and focused on Paige's, mind block or no mind block, there was no way she could keep this out if she was a ranger.

Andrew entered the classroom just in time to see Logan close his eyes.

"Logan no!" Andrew exclaimed, running towards him. But it was too late, Logan was already screaming in Paige's mind.

Andrew turned around and ran right into Britney and Jared coming in behind him.

"We have to find her now!" He exclaimed, running past them out the door.

Britney and Jared looked at each other, wondering what had happened. That's when they finally looked at Logan and realized what he had done. Any minute now Paige could have the worst migraine she would ever have in her life. Well, only if she was the pink ranger.

Jared and Brit booked it for the door as they felt the pain of the distress signal in their own heads.

"He is so cute!" Odette gushed, twirling her thick brown curls in her hand as she talked about what's his name, her latest crush. Paige tuned her out as Odette walked ahead of her with Andrea and went on and on about this new guy. They had just left school property on their way to lunch at a nearby pizza place. Paige wasn't really in the mood to go out but Odette had insisted. So Paige walked behind them, lost in her own thoughts. She found herself thinking about Logan and the really weird way he had been side eyeing her for the past couple of days. She couldn't tell if he liked her or was planning her untimely demise. Then she thought about Britney. Her old friend had been paying a bit more attention to her than usual. It was strange. She wondered what was going on with them. Paige felt the beginning of a headache coming on.

 _Great_ , she thought to herself, _look where thinking about them gets me._

 _Ouch_ , she thought again, her head was really starting to hurt. She stopped walking and closed her eyes, trying to block out the pain. It wasn't working; the pain was really building up!

"Ahhh," she moaned, holding her head.

Odette and Andrea stopped walking and looked back.

"What's wrong?" Odette asked.

But Paige couldn't answer her; the pain was too much. Her head felt like it was about to explode! She dropped to the ground on her knees, holding her head, getting mud all over her dark jeans. Odette and Andrea hovered over her, worried, asking what was wrong. Paige tried to open her eyes to look up at them. She managed to look up but instead of seeing her friends she saw … Andrew? Yep, it was Andrew. Tall, blond, ex basketball star Andrew and he was running really fast towards her. She closed her eyes again, struggling to stand back up. Then she felt the ground leave her. No matter the pain, her eyes flew open in shock. She was in Andrew's arms and he was running back to the school with her as Odette and Andrea just stood there and looked on in shock. Andrew was obviously a lot stronger than he looked.

She moaned in pain. Andrew glanced down at her as he ran thinking, _she is the chosen one._

Andrew entered the school through a seldom used entrance and ran towards the classroom that Logan was still in, trying to avoid any curious students or worse, teachers. Britney and Jared were already there with him, having had no luck finding Paige on their own. They looked up hopefully when he came in. They had been expecting him, but not him and the semi-conscious Paige that was in his arms.

"Oh shit," Britney said right away, running over to help Andrew put Paige on a desk.

Logan stopped his mental panic and opened his eyes at the sound of Brit's voice, exhausted. The effort of keeping it going so long had worn him out. He slumped forward in his chair and face planted on the desk.

"Whoa buddy," Jared said, patting him on the back.

Logan raised his head up slightly, blinking, feeling disoriented.

"Did it work?" He asked Jared, "Was it her?"

"Yes," Jared replied, looking over at Paige. "Man, what did you do to her?" He half whispered to Logan, "You were supposed to give her a headache, not blow up all her brain cells!"

"What?" Logan asked, confused. He looked over at Paige. She had finally passed out. Andrew had laid her across some desks that Brit had pushed together and he and Brit were now bending over her looking worried. Britney turned to Logan with anger in her eyes.

"You idiot!" She seethed, "Look what you did!"

Just then Paige came to.

"Ughhhhhh," she moaned, moving her head side to side before slowly opening her eyes. At first all she saw was a ceiling, then Andrew and Britney's anxious faces above her. She sat up quickly.

"Ughh," she moaned again. She had sat up a tad bit to quickly; her world was spinning. When it stopped, she looked around and realized she was lying on some desks in her math class. She looked confused as she tried to figure out why that was and what the hell had happened.

When that didn't work out she asked out loud, "What the hell happened?"

Britney and Andrew traded glances while Logan and Jared looked at the clock. No one said anything and Paige felt that the silence said the most. It must be something bad if no one wanted to tell her.

"Well?" she demanded impatiently. Still, no one spoke.

She looked at her jeans, covered in mud and then at Andrew, hoping for some answers there. No such luck. But then she remembered something; his face. He had carried her here. She looked at him then, not just looked, but really looked. She looked at him as if she were seeing him for the first time. This did not go unnoticed. Everyone turned to look at Andrew and he turned slightly red.

"Tell me what happened," she asked him softly, with her best big blue eyed innocent look.

Andrew stared at her for a minute before he could answer. But what he said was not the marvelous explanation she had been expecting.

"You fainted outside and I carried you in." He crossed his arms and stared at her. He said it like he expected a challenge.

Paige just stared at him; she had no idea what to think. That could not have been all that had happened, she knew it and she knew that he knew it. The question was why wasn't he telling her the truth?

"Yes," She said slowly, thinking. "But why did I faint and why were you running towards me right then?"

"Uhh," Andrew said, buying time. He looked at the others for help.

"He didn't know," Logan said, jumping in, "He was out, uh …"

"Jogging!" Jared said finishing Logan's sentence. "Yep, out jogging."

"Jogging?" Paige said, staring at him. This was their brilliant explanation?

Britney stood protectively behind Paige. "You don't jog outside of gym class and basketball practice," she challenged with narrowed eyes. She wanted to tell Paige the truth now, even though they were at school and she may not believe her just yet. This was the entire reason that had they were all here now, wasn't it?

Andrew glared back, "Well, it's a new thing I started … today."

Britney just glared at him. She opened her mouth to tell Paige the truth but Logan cut her off. He had read her mind with his growing mental powers and knew what she was planning.

"Well, if you're all better I think I'll be off," Logan said to Paige and the others, stretching his arms out and yawning loudly, "I have a class to get to now, but we should all hang out after school today. Yeah?" As if on cue, the bell rang signalling next period.

Paige ignored him and turned her attention to Brit, hoping for answers. Now that the bell had rung and a class was coming in, Brit was no longer sure if now was a good time to tell Paige that there would be a few huge changes in her life soon.

Brit hesitated, then said, "Logan's right, lets hang out after school and we'll tell you everything."

"Tell me what?" Paige said eagerly, not moving an inch.

Andrew gave Brit an angry look for being cryptic. "Not here, not now," he said rudely.

"We'll meet at the bleachers outside after last period. OK?"

Everyone nodded mutely and the team left the room. Paige didn't move right away. She just stared after them as they all walked out, wondering what on earth could possibly be such a big secret. She didn't move until a teacher came into the room and told her that desks were no place to take a nap and to leave before she gave her detention. Paige hopped off the desks and hurried to her locker to grab her books. This day could not be over fast enough.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 – The Pink Ranger

The rangers never managed to convince Paige that she was going to get powers. She only laughed at them when they told her, and laughed even harder when Andrew got mad at her for laughing and stomped home. Paige only believed them when she transformed into the pink power ranger suit a week later on her 16th birthday, after touching a strange rock she'd gotten in the mail.

After her first transformation, which happened when she was getting ready for school, she ran directly to Logan's two story brick house as it was only a few blocks away. Once there she almost ran directly into him, as he was opening his front door to leave for school right as she was about to pound on it.

"What the hell!" she shouted into his surprised face.

"What the hell, what?" He replied, totally confused as he shut his front door while using his other hand to swing his black backpack over his shoulder.

"I...I..." Paige stuttered, losing her anger as she stared at his face. Now that she was actually facing another human being, saying the words _I touched a rock and was suddenly wearing a pink suit_ out loud seemed really dumb.

Luckily for Paige, Logan clued into what day it was and what must have happened as Paige was stuttering.

"It happened!" Logan shouted excitedly, "It's your birthday! You're finally one of us!" He grabbed her shoulders and shook her excitedly as she mutely nodded her head at him, grateful she didn't have to say the extremely weird words out loud.

Once Logan calmed down, he ran his hands through his hair thinking about the next step as Paige smoothed out the arms of her blue jean jacket, which had become very rumpled during Logan's excitement.

"We'll need to call the others to let them know, and then we'll need to take you to Commander Vannick at the command center. There's so much work to do to get you ready in time."

"Ready in time for what?" Paige asked him, taking a pink compact out of her backpack to make sure her makeup hadn't gotten smudged on her mad dash to Logan's. The sun glinted off the pink rock/morpher in her open bag that she had brought with her, not knowing what else to do with it.

"Can you please focus?" Logan asked, taking the compact out of her hands so she would look at him instead of herself.

"On what?" Paige snapped, grabbing the compact back. No one got between her and her reflection.

Logan sighed impatiently, "We need to take you to the command center and get you battle ready. We're power rangers, remember? We fight bad guys, specifically alien bad guys trying to destroy our world and you are not currently trained enough to fight off a child."

Paige snorted angrily, tossing her long hair over her shoulder as she crossed her arms and glared at him. "Fine, let's get this over with then. I've got a test in third period today."

Logan closed his eyes and used his mental powers to call each of the other rangers, telepathically telling them to come to him now.

Paige stared at Logan. "Are you napping standing up? What are you doing? Open your eyes!"

Logan sighed again, opening his eyes and thinking that this was going to be a very long day. "My power is mental."

Paige snorted again, "You got that right."

"No! I mean I have telepathy. I can read other people's minds and communicate with them by thought. That's my power."

"Oh." Paige raised her eyebrows, impressed. "What's my power?"

"You don't know yet? Weird, we all figured out our powers pretty quickly. Maybe just pay more attention to things today? See if you do anything that not normal, I guess." Logan answered, shrugging his shoulders. "Or maybe you're power is just blocking me out of your thoughts."

"Ok, what? How was I supposed to know that I could do that?" Paige demanded.

"Oh yeah, I guess we forgot to mention this to you last week…." Logan muttered. Louder he said, "I tried reading your thoughts last week and got nothing. So far, you are the first person who has been able to keep me out of their thoughts."

"Oh", Paige smiled at that, "Excellent"

Just then, Andrew, Britney and Jared pulled up to the curb outside of Logan's house in Brit's moms green station wagon.

"Get in losers, we're going shopping!" Brit yelled from the driver's side window, laughing hysterically. Andrew and Jared just stared at her, not understanding what she was talking about at all.

"Nice", Paige said laughing, as her and Logan climbed into the back seat next to Andrew. "So my rock glowed pink today, just like you guys said it would. So take me to your leader, I guess?" Paige quipped, smiling around at everyone.

Andrew was the only one who rolled his eyes, as everyone else laughed while Brit pulled away from the cub and headed out of town, towards the mountains where the command center was hidden.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 – The Command Center

In the mountains of California, covered in walking trails, a group of teenagers were spotted hiking from space. The evil Emperor Kornos watched them from his spaceship, surrounded by his minions, plotting new ways to terrorize the people of earth. His red cape floated behind him as he paced in front of his special long range viewing window. He couldn't wait to take over this planet and have its entire inhabitants bowed down to his greatness. As long as the only resistors continued to be a few annoying teenagers that could be easily dealt with, there would be nothing standing in his way.

The power rangers hiked through the trails on the mountain, on their way to the hidden command center. The sun was shining bright and it was an exceptionally warm day out. It was great weather for taking a stroll through a park full of trees, but not so great weather for hiking up the side of a mountain with almost zero shade.

"Are we there yet? My shoes were not made for this kind of harsh environment." Paige complained, wincing as she stepped on yet another rock with her black knee high heeled boots.

"Almost", Andrew said without looking back, keeping a brisk pace as his tanned forehead gleaned with sweat. "It's just ahead, through that wall."

"I'm sorry, did you say "through" a wall?" Paige replied, side eyeing him.

Jared ran forward laughing, took out his morpher and touched it to a solid rock wall.

The wall shimmered and disappeared, turning into a cave entrance. Jared led the way with the others following him, laughing at the absolutely shocked expression on Paige's face. Paige followed slowly behind with her mouth wide open, poking the sides of the orange colored rock wall with her index finger, as if testing to see if more could simply vanish.

They walked a short distance, single file through the cave before seeing a wide steel door. Andrew stepped forward and put his hand on a black rectangular screen sticking slightly out of the wall on the left side of the door. It glowed red when he touched it, and the door slid open.

Andrew turned and smiled at Paige, flourishing his arm towards the entrance. "Go on in."

Paige walked ahead of the others, her blue eyes wide. Once past the steel door, you would never know that you were inside of a mountain. On the inside was a large open room. The ceiling was so high up Paige could barely see it and the walls were covered in draping silk of different colors. Directly ahead of her near the far wall, was a high tech assembly of computers, monitors and random gadgets on tables that she couldn't even identify. To either side of her, when standing in the middle of this large, almost elegant looking room, she could see closed doors leading to who knows where.

Andrew, Britney, Jared and Logan walked around Paige and sat at different computers, all starting different tasks. Paige walked over to them each in turn, peering at their screens, trying to process everything that they were doing and everything that had happened to her in just the last few hours.

The door on the left side of the room opened then and a man walked out. Paige jumped at the sound of his footsteps and turned to see who it was. It was a middle aged man with light brown skin, a serious set of biceps and a very serious look on his face. He had black eyes and thick black eyebrows. On the right side of his face, from just above his eyebrow all the way down to the bottom of his chin was a thin faded scar.

"Greeting rangers," the unknown man said.

"Commander!" Andrew jumped up from his chair, having been so intently looking at what was on his screen he hadn't even noticed when Command Vannick had entered the room. Andrew hurried over to him. "Commander, I'd like you to meet Paige, our Pink Ranger." Andrew pointed to Paige, who just stood awkwardly behind Brit's computer chair, not knowing what the proper thing to do was. "Hello." She said to the man, giving a half hearted wave. She nervously smoothed down the sides of her short black skirt, wondering what on earth was in store for her here.

Commander Vannick eyed Paige silently without moving, his white cotton drawstring pants and grey muscle shirt looking very at odds to Paige, when compared to the brightly colored silk drapes all over the room. "Excellent. It is a pleasure to meet you. "

The Commander cleared his throat and looked around at all of the rangers individually, who stood up one by one and came to stand together in a row in front if him. "Now that you are all assembled," he began, "the real work can begin. While your powers all work individually, there are some things you can only do with all 5 of you working together and combining your powers. "

He walked over to one of the tables covered in gadgets and chose a small, plain wooden box from it. He walked back over to the rangers and opened it for them to see the contents. Inside were 5 silver watches, all with tinted glass covers that corresponded to their ranger colors. He gave them out silently to each ranger. The rangers held them and waited to hear what to do with them. Paige mumbled a thanks.

"Now that all 5 powers are released again in this world, you will be able to use these devices. The items I have just given to you are not just watches; they are also communication and teleportation devices. You can use them to contact each other or this command center, no matter where you are. You can also use them to teleport yourself to any location, either on this planet or another." The rangers all nodded as the commander finished and put their cool new gadgets on their wrists. Jared wondered if they were water proof and was just about to ask when the commander continued. He turned to Paige. "Paige, as the newest member of the team, I hope that you will adjust to this new life quickly, and know that the fight ahead is not to be taken lightly. I, along with the others, will make sure that you are trained and ready to fight the evil Emperor Kornos and his minions, who are hell bent on destroying this planet. You and the others were chosen for a reason. You all possess a unique and powerful quality that the powers deemed great enough to enhance. My father knew what he was doing when he created them centuries ago. One day I hope to find him again, and have him see the greatness that has continued."

He paused, letting everyone absorb his speech and then continued on. "Andrew, the red ranger and leader of this team, you are the strongest man on this planet. Jared, the blue ranger, you are the fastest man on this planet. There is nothing that can outrun you. Britney, the yellow ranger, you are our tracker. Nothing can hide from you for long. Logan, the black ranger, your powers of telepathy and mind reading are surpassed by none. Paige, the pink ranger, your powers remain to be discovered. So far, your mental protection is outstanding, but there is likely more to come."

"Rangers, you may now resume your duties as I show Paige around." The rangers nodded and returned to their respective computers while Paige stayed where she was.

The commander then proceeded to show Paige around. He first led her to the door on the left side of the room that he had originally entered from. The hallway behind the door led to several small bedrooms, a large bathroom and a small medical center. This was where the rangers could stay if they were working on something late and needed to spend the night or if they were ever injured after a fight and needed treatment and recuperation. One of the bedrooms belonged solely to Commander Vannick, as this was where he stayed always monitoring the skies and ground for signs of evil. His purpose in life was to find, train and guide the rangers his father had created. His father had disappeared hundreds of years ago, but Commander Vannick still hoped that one day he would be found alive.

The Commander than led Paige to the other door, across the main room. Behind it was a hallway that led to a large gym full of machines, a training room with floor mat and a large empty garage.

Once the main tour was done, Vannick showed Paige to the computer area the other rangers were at. Andrew and Brit was monitoring news stations around the world for signs of evil activity, Jared was working on designing and 3D printing new weapons for them all and Logan was testing some of the already made weapons at one of the tables full of gadgets.

"Welcome home." Vannick smiled at Paige.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6 – Pinks First Fight

"Andrew, no! You have to go! Jared and Britney need your help!" Paige cried, pushing him away from the water's edge.

"I can't just leave him!" Andrew shouted at her, grabbing her arms and pushing her back.

"I'll get him!" Paige cried. "I swear it! He'll be fine! Go!" She pushed him again.

Andrew hesitated, unsure. Logan had to live! What would the team do without him? But Andrew trusted Paige. He knew that she would do absolutely everything she could to save him.

"Go!" Paige cried again.

Andrew took one last look at the water and then he turned and sprinted away through the park. Paige didn't watch him go. She turned back to the seemingly bottomless lake and tried to think fast. All she had to do was get Logan out of there before he drowned. She had already wasted precious time arguing with Andrew, there might not be much time left. She ran to the edge and jumped into the freezing cold water in her ranger suit, trying not to think about the fact that she wasn't the best swimmer and that they might both drown. But that was a chance she was going to have to take. She had to try to save him. Besides, she was strong! She was a Power Ranger! Maybe her secret power was that she was the world's fastest swimmer! Right now, she really hoped that was it. If not … Well, there was only one way to find out.

Logan couldn't move, he couldn't breathe. His hands and feet were still tied to the chair Emperor Kornos's minions had forced him on, just before throwing him in the lake to distract the rangers while the Emperor rained destruction upon the unsuspecting shopper's downtown. He was going to die; he knew it. He had no fight left in him. Any second now he would need to breathe and he would open his mouth and let the water enter his burning lungs. This was it, _goodbye world_ , he thought. He opened his mouth and the water rushed in. Just before losing consciousness he saw a large pink fish swimming towards him …

Paige swam as fast as she could towards the bottom of the lake, which thankfully wasn't as deep as it had seemed. She was getting tired fast and her upper arms ached from where Andrew and his fists of steel had grabbed her.

She still couldn't see Logan and her air supply was going. Then she spotted him. His eyes were closed and he appeared to be unconscious, but hopefully still alive.

She swam to his side and tried to pull the chair up. No luck there. She narrowed her eyes, swam behind him and attempted to untie the knots with her fingers. The knots on his hands came free. The she went to work on the ones at his feet. It went a little slower this time; she was starting to feel light headed. She had never held her breath for this long before. The last knots came free after what felt like a very long period of time and Paige grabbed Logan around the waist and started tugging him up toward the light. But it was slow going. She was weak. Her lungs felt like they were about to burst, her eyesight was blurry and she could barely keep going. But she told herself that no matter how bad she was; Logan was worse. And he had to live. She had promised Andrew. So with her last bit of energy she kicked up and a second later her head broke the surface.

"Ahhh," she gasped for breath, breathing in deeply but quickly a few times. Her lungs burned badly. She had only been in the water for a little over 2 minutes. She swam slowly with Logan to the edge and then dragged him out of the water.

He looked bad. His black ranger suit had disappeared off him sometime after he lost consciousness in the water and he was back in his street clothes. His skin was a purplish blue color that obviously wasn't healthy and he wasn't breathing. She didn't know how long he had even been under for. Swimming obviously wasn't her hidden talent.

She hit Logan lightly on the face a few times, than smacked his chest.

"Come on Logan!" She cried desperately, "Breathe!"

She realized she would have to give him CPR, something she had not done before but really should know considering she was a ranger now that was supposed to be about saving lives. She looked around quickly to make sure no one was about and took her pink ranger helmet off. She breathed in deeply, wincing as she felt her lungs burn again and then leaned down and put her lips to his she breathed out. She used her hands to push on his chest. She did that repeatedly a few times with no results. Finally, after several more failed attempts she gave up and gave a frustrated cry, hitting him on his chest again and again, begging him to wake up. This was her first battle against Emperor Kornos and already, she had let a fellow ranger die. She wasn't cut out for this. She simply wasn't good enough. The powers had chosen wrong.

"No," she moaned, tears starting to trickle down her face as she stared at Logan lying unmoving on the grass, "I'm sorry Logan. I'm so sorry."

Then something began to happen. Logan started to glow under where her fists were still clenched on his chest. The pink glow slowly spread across his chest as Paige gazed down at him in disbelief, her eyes wide.

Logan gasped suddenly and sat up, opening his eyes and spewing water from his mouth like a fountain as he choked, getting all of the water out of his lungs.

As Logan took a deep breath of fresh, clean air Paige started to laugh out loud. She laughed, tears still falling down her face as she looked in amazement at his suddenly dry hair.

Logan looked at the brightly colored world around him, the blue sky, the green trees, wondering what the hell had happened.

"Logan," She cried out with a big smile. "You're okay!"

"What happened?" He asked hoarsely, rubbing his throat and wincing. Paige was still so distraught and confused about what had happened that she could only stare at him without speaking. It was then that Logan faintly saw in his mind's eye her memory of him glowing pink. It made him realize that with her defenses down and her emotions jumbled, he was able to read her mind and what she was focusing on right now was the pink miracle that had saved his life. He also realized then that Paige had inadvertently healed him. It was the only explanation for the pink glow. Her secret power was healing!

This hidden power explained so much. It explained why accident prone Paige had never had a sprained anything or a broken bone in her life. She had always had the power inside and just never knew it. It took something this dramatic for her to truly awaken the power.

Logan impulsively reached over and hugged Paige, so happy they had figured out what her power was. Paige hugged him back, not fully realizing that she had healing powers, only happy that Logan wasn't dead.

When they pulled apart Paige wiped her eyes, embarrassed at her tears and said, "We should get back to the others and help them fight. Kornos is taking over downtown."

"Right," Logan stood up shakily on the grass, reaching into his pocket for his morpher as Paige snapped her helmet back into place.

"Let's go," he said all business again. Together they ran to help the others.

By the time they got to the mall Logan had transformed. That way the public would only see the Black and Pink Power Rangers run up. They had to keep their identities a secret after all.

Paige and Logan stopped running when they saw the crowd in the parking lot. It was getting violent, with people trying to push forward, past the doors that weren't opening, to go inside and see what was happening.

"Stay back!" Paige yelled in a very loud but commanding voice that made people turn their heads. "Everything will be fine!"

She and Logan ran inside. They pushed the door open in time to see the Red Ranger flying past them and crashing into the gumball machines thirty feet away. With a loud crack, the machines burst open and brightly colored gumballs rolled out all over the floor, making it hard to stay upright.

"Whoa!" Paige cried, slipping on the gumballs and nearly falling, in her haste to reach Andrews side.

"Logan!" Andrew cried, getting up stiffly from his bed of broken glass and gumballs. "You're alive!"

"Yep," Logan said, reaching over to help Andrew stand. "Paige saved my ass back there."

"Thank you," Andrew said to Paige.

"It was nothing," Paige said breezily, with a wave of her hand.

Andrew didn't notice her response, his attention diverted again. Jared and Britney were still busy fighting the evil concrete monster while this nice little reunion went on.

"Help," Britney cried as she was punched hard in the stomach. Jared was over to her left, picking himself up off the ground and shooting vainly at the monster with a blaster. Nothing happened when the laser beam hit the concrete monster. This ugly beast appeared to be indestructible. The Power Rangers were losing, and badly. Andrew, Logan and Paige rushed to help their fallen friends.

The rangers were all grouped together, hiding behind a drugstore counter as the concrete monster continually threw chucks of concrete generated from its own body in their direction.

"We need a plan now. Blasters don't work on this thing and there are still innocent people outside!" Britney exclaimed, peering over the counter in the direction of the smashed windows, where she could see crowds of people and a news crew hovering outside, hoping for a glimpse of the monster and not caring that it could easily kill them. They all wanted to be entertained, and have a good story to tell others that would make them feel important.

"Jared, you're a sciencey guy, how do you normally get rid of unwanted concrete?" Paige asked, looking to Jared, hoping desperately that he had an answer.

"With liquid concrete dissolver and a power washer that you buy at a hardware store!" Jared shouted, ducking as more concrete whizzed by close to his ear.

"That's genius!" Andrew shouted back. "There's a hardware store across the street that might have what you need! Jared and Brit, go find it right now! The rest of us will distract the monster so you can get out. Hurry!"

With that said, Andrew launched himself up and over the counter, directly at the surprised monster who was not expecting his prey to expose themselves so easily. The monster grunted when Andrew landed a punch and knocked it back a step. Brit and Jared got up and raced around the counter and out the door as the monster turned to them, not wanting any of its prey to escape.

Paige jumped up from behind the counter next, getting the monsters attention and keeping it in its place, as it was now unsure which ranger to go after first.

Paige started throwing anything she could reach at the monster, knowing that her blaster was useless against it. "Take that!" She yelled, throwing bottles of flu medication in the monsters face and running to hide behind a shelf as it threw a baseball sized ball of concrete directly at her head. "Have some makeup!" She yelled next, throwing the closest jars of face cream and then ducking for cover yet again. Andrew ran around behind the monster, punching it whenever Paige had it distracted. Brightly colored boxes and bottles continued to fly through the air as Paige and Andrew tried to lure it back to the section of floor that was covered in hazardous gumballs. Their hope was that the monster would fall and be unable to get back up and aim at them due to its large size.

Logan continually shot his blaster at the monsters lower blocks of legs, hoping that it would help bring it off balance and tip over. He circled the monster slowly, shooting his blaster angrily at it. As his ranger suit was black and there were thick clouds of smoke from the debris and small fires in the shop, the monster had a harder time pin pointing him than the others. Logan managed to avoid most chunks of concrete that were thrown at him, but he did take some hits to the back. Every hit he took, the angrier he became. This was their second fight against one of the Emperor's big monsters and not just the minions, and the second time that he had almost died. He couldn't shake the growing feeling that he was the weak link of the group and not Paige, as he had secretly thought.

The three rangers continually threw, fired and generally distracted the monster from different directions until it finally reached the part of the floor with the gumballs. Paige waited in anticipation for the monster to fall over as she almost had, only to watch its large blocks of feet simply crush the gumballs it stepped on. She signed in dismay, realizing her plan had not been well thought out at all. She hoped Jared and Britney would be back with their supplies soon, as they could not distract the monster forever.

Meanwhile at the hardware store, Jared and Britney were in aisle 3 debating the best way to get every single can of liquid concrete dissolver out the door and across the street all at once. They had managed to teleport themselves directly into the evacuated store to avoid the crowds outside and get the supplies, but were unsure how many of the cans they would need to destroy the monster. They also were unable to simply teleport the cans over, as they would have to teleport themselves with the cans at the same time, and they simply could not hold so many cans at once. Another issue they had come across was the power washer. The only ones the store carried needed electricity to work, and the power at the drugstore the monster was currently in had been shut off by the city. What were they going to do?

Paige, Andrew and Logan were back hiding behind the drug counter, crouching down and swearing to themselves in frustration as the concrete monster destroyed every single shelf in the store that the rangers could possibly hide behind, trying to find them. Andrew thought that the one good thing about the Emperors monsters was that they were definitely not bright. The monster hadn't yet thought to check behind the long drug counter at the opposite side of the store. As Andrew peeked over the countertop to check on the monsters progress through the store, he spotted the Blue Ranger running at his top speed through the now broken store doors, pushing a cart loaded up with cans and cans of the concrete dissolver.

"Guys, they're back!" Andrew rushed over to Jared, helping him shoot the cans so that the liquid started pouring out. They began throwing the cans directly at the monster and Logan and Paige used their blasters to shoot the cans in the air, causing the contents to explode all over the monster and area surrounding it. They worked as a team to thoroughly soak the monster, watching as it started growling in frustration as the liquid started to seep into its concrete skin and turn it into mush. As the team watched the monster in fascination, Britney ran through the doors holding three power washers attached to very long orange colored extension cords and long green garden hoses.

"I figured it out!" She yelled at them, awkwardly passing Paige and Logan the other two power washers in her arms as she tried to keep the cords from being tangled together. "Spray it now till it comes apart!" Paige and Logan didn't bother to question her methods; they simply followed her lead and turned the washer on, focusing the spray directly on the monster. Within minutes, noticeable pieces of the monster began falling away. The monster yelled in frustration, as pieces of the arm it had been using to generate new concrete began falling away. The monster was eventually defeated, with only chunks of mushy concrete remaining on the floor, Logan having used his blaster to destroy any large remaining parts of the monster.

It was over. They had won the battle. As they smiled at each other in relief and exhaustion, they gazed around at the destruction to the store and wondered how they would be able to win the war.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7 – The Black Ranger

Logan liked to mind-read from the top of the grassy hill that was at the end of his dead end street, sitting cross-legged on the ground in his black skinny jeans and grey t shirt, searching through the townspeople's minds for signs of trouble; monster or other. It seemed though, that with the sunshine and all around good weather they were having this Saturday morning, most people seemed to be in a good mood and not inclined towards any wrongdoing. The monster tracker Jared had constructed back at the base had not picked up on anything yet, so Logan figured it was the best time to do his little experiment.

He reached into his black backpack that was on the ground beside him and pulled out the pink morpher he had taken from Paige's bedroom earlier that morning, without her knowledge. When he was on his way home from the command center he had passed by Paige's home first, and had noticed her second floor bedroom window was wide open, her sheer pink curtains blowing from the gentle breeze. He hated stealing from his friend, but he knew she would not consent to her morpher being used in an experiment with such an uncertain outcome. But Logan needed more power. When he saw her window was open, he didn't think twice. He simply climbed the tree on her front lawn and launched himself onto the roof of her house, glancing around quickly to see if anyone on the quiet street was watching. He knew she kept her morpher in her jewelry box when it wasn't in her bag, and he knew that Saturday mornings she liked to buy fresh fruit with her parents at the local farmers market and she would not bring her morpher with her, in case her parents looked in her bag. Logan felt that he the weakest of the rangers in terms of strength, and was hoping an extra little power boost would be just the thing to fix that.

He stood up and headed down the hill, swinging his bag over his shoulder, the pink morpher still clutched in his hand. He should start the experimental power transfer soon before Paige realized her morpher was gone and started a panic that could lead back to what he had done.

Paige couldn't believe she had gotten jumped by Emperor Kornos's minions in broad daylight. After spending the morning with her parents at the local market, she had left them early to meet Brit for lunch so they could gossip about the cute guy in school that their friend Odette was obsessed with and she had decided to walk to the downtown cafe they'd be meeting at. The day was warm and sunny with just a nice breeze, so she was wearing an adorable long light pink sundress and strappy brown sandals, with her long blond hair flowing freely down her back in waves. She had decided to take a shortcut to the café by cutting through the park. That's when several of the Emperor's minions had appeared out of thin air, circled around her, their grey uniforms and large face masks covering their alien identities as always. Paige needed to transform into her suit to be able to protect herself and fight them off, but she had left her morpher at home. She needed to call the other rangers to help her right away and she also needed to teleport out to get her morpher. But she couldn't do either while dodging attacks from all sides, as the minions relentlessly came at her with their punches and kicks. Page tried her best to fend them off, but moving quickly was hard to do in her dress. She doubled over from a punch to her stomach and then crashed to the ground, hearing her dress tear near the bottom as she was kicked in the legs from behind. Paige could also hear screaming now, as a group of female joggers had just come out of the trees from a walking path. They all started running in different directions when they spotted the monsters. Only one brunette jogger had slowed from her panicked run to pull out her phone and call the police for help, as she had spotted Paige being kicked on the ground. Paige was struggling back to her feet when a minion landed a solid punch to the left side of her jaw. Paige went down hard on the grass, giving up the fight and trying to use the last of her strength to touch her pink watch to teleport herself out of there, no longer caring if anyone saw her disappear.

The Black ranger suddenly came running out of the trees, near to where the joggers had scatted from the walking path. Jumping over a bush and throwing a minion aside he came to stand protectively over her. Relief flowed through Paige when she saw him standing there in the solid ranger armor made from some alien material that was similar to the fictional Vibranium. Now she wouldn't have to teleport out and possibly expose herself. Logan would have surely called for backup once he had seen that she was in trouble, so the other rangers were probably already on their way. She continued to lie on the ground in pain, as the Black ranger began fighting the minions, using his blaster to cut them down quickly. More minions appeared out of the air and all went for the Black ranger as a group. He wasn't able to fight them all off and one of them managed to land a solid kick to his chest. The kick sent him flying backward and he crashed into a tree. He did not get back up. Paige lunged at the closest minion going after him on instinct, without any thoughts to her own current injuries. She had no other choice, she had to help Logan. She started punching the monster in the side to distract it as the black ranger stirred and got back on his feet. A moment later he was fighting alongside her, trying his best to make sure she was not harmed again as she continued punching at the minions, spitting blood from her mouth as adrenaline rushed through her system and kept her on her feet. In the distance, they could hear the sound of a helicopter coming towards them.

At the same time as Paige and the Black ranger were fighting off minions in the park, Logan was at his house in the middle of his secret experiment involving the power connected to the morphers. So far his findings had told him that any further attempts to boost his power using Paige's morpher would weaken her own powers significantly. This was not good. His experiment had to stop; too much power had already been drained from her morpher. He now had a significant power boost. Upon putting on his ranger suit to test it out, he found that his speed and strength were now increased tenfold. He wasn't faster than Jared or stronger than Andrew, but he was much closer to matching them then before.

"Logan, honey? Get up here!" It was his mother, calling down to him in the basement from their upstairs kitchen.

"What mom?" He yelled back, annoyed at her interruption.

"There's a power ranger on TV! It's the black one, protecting a girl from monsters in the park! Come quick and watch!" The pitch of her voice got higher with every word she said, her excitement at seeing a power ranger in action obvious.

Logan froze. That could not be true. His mother must be mistaken. The Black ranger could not be on TV because he, Logan, was the Black ranger. He shoved the morphers quickly out of sight in a drawer and ran upstairs to see what was going on. He ran into the kitchen and stopped directly in front of the TV beside his mother, absolutely horrified at what he saw. There on the TV was Paige, with her hands in front of her face trying desperately to defend herself and standing beside her was the Black power ranger. The Black power ranger. Logan couldn't even begin to think what this meant as he stared at the ranger on his TV screen. Had he been replaced and not told? That couldn't be it; he still had his morpher and powers.

Logan turned and ran into his basement and then back up the stairs and out of his house without saying a word to his surprised mother. She was so distracted by the TV that she didn't notice the colored rocks gripped in his hands as he sprinted past her.

Back at the park, Paige was badly wounded. All of her and the Black rangers' attempts to keep her from further injury had failed. The minions were mostly gone now, with the bodies of the defeated ones having simply vanished. Paige was bleeding profusely from a blaster wound to her right side. One of the minions had gotten hold of Logan's blaster and had used it on her, as she was unable to deflect it. She was now having trouble standing and blood was still dripping from her head and facial wounds. As the Black ranger got his blaster back and defeated the remaining minions, Paige collapsed on the ground for the final time.

"You did great", the Black ranger said to her as he raced to her side, his voice muffled by his helmet.

Paige tried to focus on his next words, "You'll be okay, don't worry", but it was difficult to hear them with the news crew now surrounding them and another helicopter hovering overhead.

She lost consciousness then.

Paige woke slowly to the sound of beeps. Annoying beeps. Loud beeps. Close by her head beeps. Could that be her alarm? She opened her eyes but had to quickly shut them again as it was far too bright out, everything was white. She squinted, opening her eyes again and trying to figure out where she was. That's when she heard Britney's voice saying, "Guy's she waking up!"

Opening her eyes wider, the brightness of the room dimmed as four heads all suddenly came into focus over her, staring down at her hopefully, Britney's long brown curls tickling her face.

"Finally", Logan said, looking as pale as the room.

"What happened?" Paige asked, trying to remember as she struggled into a sitting position, brushing Brit's hair away from her face. The heart monitor she was connected to continued to steadily beep at her side.

Britney, Jared, Logan and Andrew exchanged glances as they leaned back, not sure what to tell her since they weren't even sure what was going on.

But Paige was starting to recall as she looked around the room and realized she was in a hospital bed. "Logan, you saved my life. Thank you." She smiled at him, but he didn't smile back.

"Paige, you need to rest. We will figure everything out." Andrew said to her.

"Figure everything out? What do you mean?" Paige asked, confused.

The four all exchanged glances again. Andrew spoke for them. "Paige", he began slowly, "Logan didn't save you. We don't know who that was."

Now Paige was fully awake. "What are you taking about? That had to be Logan. There can't be two Black rangers! It's impossible."

"Nothing's impossible apparently because there are now definitely two Black rangers", Logan said shifting his feet uncomfortably, grass stains noticeable on his jeans. "I was at home when you were attacked. But I still have my morpher," he added, looking guilty. Paige wondered why he looked guilty when he spoke about his morpher. Had he done something to cause the second ranger to appear and just didn't want to tell them he'd messed up?

"So what happened after I passed out?" she asked, trying to focus on her immediate problem.

"You can watch it on TV if you want", Jared said wryly, "It's playing repeatedly on every station."

Jared turned and switched on the TV that was hanging on the white wall. There on the right side of the screen, was last year's school picture of Paige. On the left of the screen was a female newscaster with perfectly straight hair and a serious expression reporting on how Paige had been attacked by monsters in a local park and heroically saved by a power ranger. Then the station played the video of the attack.

There was Paige in the video, trying to defend herself while the Black ranger fought off the minions. The video showed her from far away, being injured by the blaster and then collapsing soon after, as the Black ranger defeated the rest of the minions. Paige watched as the mystery ranger in the video lifted her up and carried her towards a news van that was parked nearby. Its occupants were rushing forward with microphones, hoping for an interview, but the Black ranger walked past them and simply put the bloody and unconscious Paige into the van. You could hear in the video the ranger giving instructions to take Paige to the hospital now. Then the ranger turned and ran off into the nearby bushes, where the news team couldn't follow with their big cameras. The video ended then with a black screen and the reporter came back on saying how Paige had been taken to the local hospital to be treated for her serious injuries, but that she was expected to make a full recovery.

They were all silent as the news changed to sports. Paige was bewildered. Who had saved her life? Something else had occurred to her that was just as worrying. Out loud she said, "Do you think he knew I was a power ranger? Or was it a coincidence that he happened to be nearby to save my life and I didn't have my morpher to show him who I was?"

Everyone pondered this silently. It was a good question. If this new Black ranger knew their identities, they could have a major problem. On the other hand, since he seemed to be fighting for good, maybe this situation could turn out positive. They could potentially have a new ally.

As everyone left the hospital in the early afternoon after saying goodbye to Paige, who was not allowed to leave for another day or two, Logan worried about the consequences of stealing Paige's morpher. He had gotten it back into her jewelry box before heading to the park to help her, after he had seen the attack on TV. In the hospital he had gotten past her mind block easily with her natural defenses lowered thanks to the morphine in her system and had been able to read her mind. He knew that she was suspicious of him, as he had seen how guilty his face had looked as he spoke of his morpher. Thankfully, she thought it had something to do with the new ranger, as she had no idea what he had done to her morpher. At least, she didn't know yet. He walked home slowly, worrying about his future as a power ranger and losing the trust of his friends.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8 – Plan C

It was several hours after the attack on Paige in the park before the rangers were able to assemble together at the Command Center with Commander Vannick, to discuss this new ranger. After leaving the hospital Andrew, Logan, Jared and Brit all went to their respective homes to make sure their parents knew they were okay. They had dinner with their families and then excused themselves, each saying they had a group project for school to work on at a friend's house. Paige would only be able to teleport herself to the Command Center for a short time, as nurses were still constantly checking on her and she could not fake a bathroom break for very long without someone noticing.

By the time Paige was able to teleport herself to the command center the others had already been there for quite a while and were scouring past and recent news reports looking for any sign of the mystery Black ranger. So far, they were coming up with nothing new. Either this ranger was brand new or was very good at hiding his or her tracks. Commander Vannick was more excited than anything about this new ranger, as it confirmed to him that his father was indeed still alive somewhere. No one else had the power to create a ranger, let alone duplicate an existing rangers' power. The Commander was sure this power was a duplicate, as the ranger was the Black one, which meant that they could assume that this new ranger had Logan's mind reading powers or something similar, as specific gifts went with the Black ranger suit. What worried Commander Vannick the most was the unknown reason why the Black ranger power had been duplicated. Had Logan failed in some way not yet known to him? Was he destined to? The most important question though, was if his father was indeed alive and aware enough to keep tabs on the rangers then why had he not made his whereabouts known to his son? The Commander pondered these questions silently, sitting in loose fitting white sweat pants and a grey t shirt, cross legged on a floor pillow meditating while the rangers worked at their stations around him. The answers to his questions would hopefully come to him in time. While he was immortal like his father, he did not have the sorcerers' powers. His only ability was to see glimpses of the future. But even with the glimpses, he could not always tell what they meant, or when they would come to pass.

Paige scratched at her arm feeling annoyed and continually shifted from bare foot to bare foot still wearing her hospital gown. Her messy ponytail needed fixing and her stomach rumbled in hunger as she had been unable to eat the gross hospital food. Even though her wounds had all healed within an hour thanks to her powers, the newbie Black ranger had taken her to the hospital where many doctors and nurses had witnessed her wounds. Now, to keep up appearances, she had to recreate the wounds on her body repeatedly at strategic times, to make it look like they were healing at the normal rate. If the doctors discovered all of her wounds mysteriously gone, they would be very suspicious and Paige did not want that kind of attention drawn to herself. Some of the more superficial wounds to her face and legs she had been able to recreate using makeup, so those were easier to maintain, so long as she did not get wet. She had been gone from the hospital for almost 15 minutes at this point and she was getting antsy, she did not want to be discovered missing and the Commander was just sitting on the floor with his eyes closed. The "meeting" she had been called for hadn't happened, as the rangers had been unable to find any new information on this ranger, and they were too busy still hopefully looking for whispers to strategize on any plan of action.

"I need to leave now", Paige snapped at them, trying to get their attention. Andrew was the only one to look up, rolling the sleeves of his thin red sweater up to his elbows as he did. "That's fine. You go back, keep up appearances. If we find anything we will contact you and if not, we'll meet here tomorrow morning and come up with a plan then."

Paige teleported out, sighing so loudly that it seemed to linger in the room even after she had gone. Andrew turned back to his computer screen and ran his hand over his cropped hair and then down his face wearily. It had been a long day and he still had no idea what they could expect from this new ranger. He supposed he should go home and get some rest. Maybe they would be able to form a clear plan of action in the morning.

The next morning saw no new results or a plan, as the rangers had all gathered at the Command Center at the crack of dawn and had immediately began arguing with each other, unable to agree on anything.

"We need to capture him and demand to know how he got my powers. Guilty until proven innocent", Logan argued passionately, still wearing his clothes from yesterday and feeling that this new ranger was a personal slap in his face.

"We can't do that", Britney argued sitting across from him at the table they had cleared off for this meeting, her bright yellow tank top and freshly washed long curls in stark contrast to his dirty, rumpled appearance. "That could make him think we are the enemy and we don't know for sure what powers he could use against us."

"What if there are more? What if we all have duplicate rangers out there? Do we have to fight them?" Jared worried out loud from the seat beside Logan; not following the argument Brit and Logan were having, lost in his own dark thoughts. His blue t-shirt and black shorts were freshly washed courtesy of his mother and the others could smell the strong scent of perfumed detergent coming off them.

Paige frowned at them, still in her hospital gown. "This new ranger is obviously good, seeing as how he saved my life. Maybe he will show up whenever we get attacked next and we can all get a cup of coffee together and chat afterwards."

"Get coffee and chat", Andrew mocked, shaking his head at her from the head of the table in his red muscle shirt and white shorts, white running shoes gleaming from his regular care of them. "If this guy shows up at a fight and actually helps us, it'll be great. But we are in a war. This new ranger is probably a trick of the Emperor's, hoping to get us to take this guy back to our Command Center and tell him our secrets so he can destroy us from within."

All arguments stopped at that, as each ranger absorbed this dark thought. They knew that thinking like this was necessary, but it also made it impossible for them to trust anybody.

"How about this", Paige started, trying to find middle ground quickly as she needed to return to the hospital. "Plan A is we try to befriend him. Find out his identity and how he got his powers. We will test him and only bring him to the Command Center once he has passed any tests we give him. Plan B, we try to befriend him and if that doesn't work we kidnap him and hold him as our prisoner here in the Command Center until he gives us all of his secrets."

"I like Plan B much more", Logan immediately replied, banging his fists on the dark wooden table top.

"A comes before B", Brit snapped at him. "This sounds good Paige. We will try befriending him next time we see him, and see how it goes from there."

Logan scowled while Jared thought about the options. He definitely wanted to find out if there was another Blue ranger out there.

Andrew stood up. "I agree with Paige. We have Plan A and Plan B. We will use them as needed. This meeting is adjourned, back to work everyone."

Paige immediately teleported herself back to the hospital, hoping they would release her soon. Britney went back to her computer to search for monsters and any new news of the Black ranger. Jared went over to his 3D printer to test out the sharpness of the Samurai sword he had just made for himself. Andrew went off in search of Commander Vannick to tell him of their plans and hoping he had seen something in his visions that would be of use to them. Logan excused himself and left, saying he had family things today but really he just wanted to run more secret tests on his super powered morpher.

The monster alarm went off in the middle of a weekday, when all of the rangers were at school in class. Commander Vannick had gone out for supplies, so no one was in the Command Center to alert the rangers of the new attack. A new monster named Cyclone had been unleashed on the city.

At the school, Paige was falling asleep while Jared was writing a complex equation on the white board of their math class; Brit was furiously taking notes in biology; Logan was nervously struggling to give a monologue in Spanish, as his Beginner Spanish classmates stared at him with glazed eyes; Andrew was in the gym arguing with his teacher, who also used to be his basketball coach.

Andrew ran a hand over his blonde head, sweat dripping down his red face as his gym teacher/basketball coach tried to convince him to return to the basketball team. He was in gym class and had just run 3 laps around the gym with the other students, as that was how their teacher Mr. Geeson liked to end every class. Once his laps were done, his balding, middle aged teacher had pulled him aside to speak to him.

"Andrew, you are my star. Without you, the guys are getting killed out there on the court every week. We need you back." Mr. Geeson implored, trying anything, including guilt and flattery, to convince Andrew to return to the team. Geeson did not like to lose, and ever since Andrew had quit his basketball team they had not won a single game. Geeson wasn't sure if the team was simply bad and Andrew had carried them, or if the team was so disheartened from losing their captain that they had simply given up trying. Either way, Geeson had come to the conclusion that Andrew simply had to rejoin the team if they wanted to make play offs this year. Geeson still proudly showed off the shiny gold trophy in his office from lasts years championship win and did not want to have to say goodbye to it anytime soon.

"I'm sorry Coach," Andrew wearily said for what felt like the hundredth time, wishing he could rejoin the team but knowing that his ranger duties would interfere. "I can't come back. I need to focus on my schoolwork and maybe get a part time job..." Andrew trailed off, not knowing what excuses he could keep making to get Mr. Geeson to just go away.

Geeson opened his mouth to continue arguing but the bell signalling the end of the period rang, cutting him off. Andrew sighed, now he would be late for his next class since he still had to shower and change. Geeson was frowning at him but moved aside silently to let Andrew go into the locker room.

Andrew sat on a bench and threw his wet towel angrily at the blue lockers, his clean red t shirt sticking to his not totally dry back after his quick shower. He was in no hurry to get to his last class now, his talk with Coach had left him feeling angry and confused. Why was Coach putting so much pressure on him? Why was he so obsessed with high school basketball? Andrew knew that being a ranger was the most important thing right now, but he still missed being able to play the game he used to love so much. He was also frustrated that he could not tell anyone that he had given up his spot on the team to help save the world. His blue jeans felt stiff on his legs, after having worn a comfortable pair of loose black shorts for the past hour. The boy's locker room was deserted; save for him, as the next gym class was a female only aerobics class that had their own female locker room down the hall. Andrew tried to calm himself, using the silence of the room to meditate as Commander Vannick had taught him.

His peaceful meditation ended abruptly moments later as he heard the locker room door burst open loudly, banging against the wall as someone ran into the locker room, shoes squeaking loudly on the floor.

Andrew got up and walked around the floor to ceiling lockers to see who it was.

He saw a guy with thin build, light golden skin, short black hair and black t shirt with blue jeans run around the other side of the lockers, towards the shower area. The guy didn't notice Andrew as he sprinted in the opposite direction. Andrew couldn't recall his name, but he knew that this guy was in his year and that he was a behind the scenes tech guy for the student run news show that was a part of the morning announcements. Andrew frowned and hurried after him, wondering if something was wrong and preparing to offer him assistance if need be.

As he rounded the corner into the shower area, he stopped suddenly and his mouth dropped open. With his back to Andrew, the guy stood in a shower to the left of the entrance and morphed into the Black ranger. Andrew's brown eyes bugged out when the Black ranger disappeared in front of his eyes. All Andrew could think was what in the world was this guy's name and how did he have the ability to teleport?

Andrew sprinted out of the gym and down the hallway towards Jared's science classroom. He skidded to a halt outside of the closed door and peered into the room through the small window on the door. He could see Jared's balding science teacher Mr. Bond standing at the front of the room in his out of style trademark brown tweed jacket and slacks, giving a lecture. He would definitely not let Jared out of the room if he saw Andrew, as he would immediately assume Andrew was helping Jared skip class. Mr. Bond wasn't a huge fan of students, but he was especially not fond of students that missed any of his classes, no matter the reason.

Andrew switched his angle in the window so that he could see Jared. Once he spotted him in the second row of desks, he started making wild hand movements to get his attention. Unfortunately, Jared never looked up. No one looked up, because everyone was staring down at their phones. Every now and then one person would look up and ask Mr. Bond a question. Andrew did not understand why Mr. Bond was allowing this. He never tolerated someone looking at their phone. He hated technology and thought hand held devices were melting brains.

Andrew tapped hard on the window, now impatient for Jared's attention. He waited outside the door long enough for Jared to glance up and see him before he took off running down the hall, diving around the corner just as Mr. Bond flung open his classroom door to see who had been there.

Andrew waited silently around the corner, pressed against the locker. Jared would understand that Andrew needed to talk to him and would come as soon as he can. Courtney suddenly came out of a room across the hall from where Andrew was hiding, but stopped short when she saw him pressed against the lockers. She started walking again, past him, shaking her hair and giving him the side eye. She had thought he was weird ever since he and the other rangers had thought she might be the pink ranger and they had all followed her around.

Jared showed up a moment later, passing Courtney at the corner, his face pale and worried.

"Hey, I just heard," Jared whispered immediately, "Let's get the others and teleport out."

"What?" Andrew whispered back, confused. "How do you know already? No one else was in the locker room."

"The locker room?" Jared yelped. "The monster is in our locker room? We need to get over there then!"

"What monster?" Andrew said, "I saw the other ranger! He's that tech guy for our news show. Do you know his name? He had short black hair."

"No way! I'm not sure of his name, but we can ask the girls later. Right now we have a monster to stop." Jared said seriously, "It's all over the news! Haven't you checked your phone? It's attacking the elementary school, the one your sister Emma goes to!"

"No," Andrew whispered, thoughts of the new ranger gone and replaced with worry for his little sister.

They turned and ran down the hall to get the others from class and stop this new threat.

The ranger's teleported to the school as soon as Andrew had them all assembled. Once there they paused to look around; people were everywhere. There were news vans and reporters with microphones, worried parents and random civilians with their phones out, hoping to catch a glimpse of a monster. The second the rangers were spotted, reporters rushed over to them asking for details; like who they really were and just generally thrusting microphones and cameras in their faces.

Paige as the Pink Ranger just shoved microscopes and cameras out of her way as she moved in the direction of the school, not bothering to be nice about it. She hadn't liked reporters since she had gotten attacked by minions in the park, as news stations had continuously posted unflattering photos of her all over TV after it.

Jared and Brit ran off to help the police force clear people away from the school grounds, in case the monster came out of the school and attacked the civilians.

Andrew and Logan hurried after Paige, as she was clearing a nice path for them through the demanding reporters.

Andrew, Logan and Paige stormed into the school with their fists ready, but their blasters holstered. They couldn't risk using blasters here in case they accidentally hit a child.

The main hallway of the 2 story old red brick school was quiet. The school had gone into lockdown when the monster had attacked, so all of the classes should be locked in their rooms, with no one leaving until the ok was given. Colorful hand painted posters lined the school walls, with slogans like "Have a nice summer!" on them, as the end of the school year was coming up fast. The rangers moved quickly past them, needing to evacuate the kids and teachers first and then deal with the monster. They started opening the closest doors, easily breaking any locks on them with their superior strength. They helped usher out countless kids before one of the frightened female teachers tipped them off that the monster and its minions was holed up in the gym, holding the class that had been in there as hostage. Apparently the monster had demanded over the schools speaker system that it be given the powers rangers, in return for the safe release of the kids and the gym teacher.

Once the rangers saw the last of the kids running out the main doors to safety, they used the communicators to call Brit and Jared inside. They then headed for the gym at the back of the school. Andrew ran ahead of the others down the long hallway, his red body armor gleaming in the bright fluorescent lights, heart pounding with worry and dread. He had looked at every student they had evacuated and none of them had been his little sister.

"This monster, whatever it is, will likely want to kill us before letting any kids go, but even then, we can't trust that it will let the kids go. So we can't simply hand ourselves over." Brit tried to strategize quickly and logically, while running down the hall.

"We can't teleport all of the kids out," Paige added, sounding a little breathless, "There's at least 25 students in the class plus the teacher."

The rangers stopped running; they had reached the wide pale grey double doors that led to the gym.

"The locker rooms." Andrew said firmly, "We need to get the kids in there and then take out the minions and monster. We should try to lure the monster outside as well if we can. We need to put as much distance between the monster and the kids as possible."

The rangers nodded in agreement and tensed themselves as Andrew threw open the doors.

Pale beams of sunlight from the mid-day sun shone down into the large gymnasium from the high windows, highlighting the dust particles in the air and the frightened group of 10 year old students sitting in a circle in the middle of the floor. A large rope was tied around them, keeping them all in place while 6 grey minions circled them like prey.

The big bad monster the rangers had heard about was very colorful, almost clown like, with fluffy red hair, beige skin and over large features. The clothes covering it were loosely draped with swirls of reds, blues and yellows. The monster didn't look frightening, it looked comical. The monster was pacing around in the corner of the gym, and the rangers could see the gym teacher lying unmoving in that corner.

"Let them go," Andrew boomed at the monster.

"Ah rangers!" The monster turned and spotted them, laughing manically. "I am Cyclone It's so good of you to finally come. You have kept me waiting much too long. Thanks to you, I grew bored and this unfortunate human wasn't enough to keep me entertained." The monster gestured at the gym teacher lying in the corner. The rangers moved into the room, and from their new angle they could see that the teacher was dead, his head twisted at an unnatural angle.

Andrew took this in silently. It seemed that the Emperor had finally created a monster that was not only able to communicate with them, but was also able to think for itself. Most of the Emperor's monsters simply destroyed and terrorized, this monster had planned and created a hostage situation using mainly children to lure the rangers.

"The power rangers are here!" "The power rangers will save us!" "Help us!" The children had hope in their eyes now that the rangers were here and they began yelling at each other and the rangers, wanting to be free. The second child that had yelled out had been none other than Andrew's sister Emma, looking relieved to see that they would soon be saved.

"Let the kids go and you can have us all to yourself," Andrew tried again, moving slowly towards the monster. The monster nodded at the minions and they left the children alone and began attacking the rangers. Andrew lunged at the monster but it dodged him and ran around the children.

The Pink, Blue, Yellow and Black rangers all fought off the minions, trying to change places with them so that they would be on the side closer to the kids.

Jared finished off a minion with a punch to the back of the head, and then used his super speed to untie the kids. Brit finished off another minion and then helped Jared herd the kids in the direction of the locker rooms to hide. Paige was not faring well against the 2 minions that were on her. She was getting kicked and punched and having a harder and harder time getting back up. She felt drained and exhausted and didn't know why.

Logan easily got rid of the 2 minions he had been fighting. He had never felt stronger. He had ducked and kicked and then repeatedly smashed the minion's heads together with his hands until they had turned into dust. He glanced over at Paige and knew immediately that her power was failing her, thanks to power drain he had performed on her morpher. He was about to help her out when the other Black Power ranger appeared at the gym doors and stopped him cold in his tracks.

During this, Andrew had been fighting the monster alone. Cyclone and Andrew had traded punches until Cyclone had pulled out a laser blaster of some kind and shot Andrew in the shoulder with it. Andrew was thrown backward from the blast, but was unharmed thanks to his suits armor. He quickly bounced back up but was punched directly in the head and he fell over, dazed. Cyclone laughed manically at this, and leveled his blaster directly at the kids that were still running to the locker rooms. There were only a few left, as most had already gotten past the door.

Andrew saw this happening and staggered to his feet, but wasn't close enough to do anything. "No!" He shouted, as he saw his sister was one of the last students, as she had lagged behind the others to watch the rangers in action.

Emma's eyes opened wide when she saw the monster pointing a blaster directly at her, and she stood there frozen in terror, unable to move. The monster shot the blaster directly at her and Andrew felt his heart stop. The Mystery Black Ranger jumped directly in front of the blast just in the nick of time, saving Emma.

The Mystery black ranger fell to the ground but was able to quickly get back up again and he herded Emma through the locker room doors to safety. Once Emma was safe, he raced back out and joined Andrew in fighting the monster.

Logan watched all of this happening, feeling anger starting to burn inside of him. Paige had used the distraction to destroy one of the minions and the other had turned its sights on Logan, leaving her alone. Logan punched the minion so hard in the chest, his hand went right through it and it instantly turned into dust. Paige watched this happen and was shocked. Logan had never been able to do that before. None of them had been able to do that, save for maybe Andrew and his super strength.

Andrew and the mystery ranger fought side by side, any doubts Andrew had regarding this new ranger had vanished the moment he had saved Emma's life. When this fight was over, Andrew was ready to welcome the new ranger into their lives.

Logan watched his friend Andrew fighting alongside the ranger that should have been him and his anger turned into rage. He was not going to let this new ranger replace him. He would destroy him first.

Logan growled and raced directly towards the mystery black ranger, tackling him from behind.

Far away at the Command Center Commander Vannick had been mediating, hoping to see the outcome of the battle. What he saw made him immediately run into the garage where his new jeep was parked. He started it up immediately and raced out of the hidden entrance and over to the elementary school, his wheels spinning rocks all around. He had just foreseen Logan attacking the new ranger and ultimately turning evil. His visions had also shown him Paige getting seriously hurt, as her powers were almost depleted and that Logan was the cause of this. He knew that Logan would soon disappear, before he could answer for his crime against Paige or restore her morpher. He just hoped he would get there in time to stop him.

Back at the elementary school Logan and the mystery ranger were wrestling on the ground. Cyclone had escaped through the emergency exit during the confusion and so Brit and Jared had led the kids back through the gym and then outside to their anxious parents. Inside of the gym, Paige, Andrew, Brit and Jared were watching the 2 Black rangers wrestle each other on the ground, unsure of who to help since they could not tell them apart. One of the Black rangers was obviously stronger than the other though, as one got the upper hand and sat on top of the other, repeatedly punching him in the face.

"Stop this!" Andrew angrily yelled, not caring who was who. The Black ranger on top reached down and savagely removed the helmet from the bottom Black rangers head, exposing his face for the rangers to see.

"Max?" Britney said, surprised to see that the mystery ranger was the quiet computer geek from her English class.

The mystery ranger, Max, nodded at her in confirmation. Logan didn't care who it was. To him, this guy was trying to be him, to take over his destiny and that could not happen. Even though Max was no longer fighting back, Logan still slammed his fist down into Max's cheekbone, keeping him pinned underneath him. Max howled in pain as blood gushed from his cut cheek and down his neck from Logan's super punch to his unprotected face.

Andrew and Jared immediately grabbed Logan and threw him off of Max. Andrew then reached down to help Max up. Max was looking warily at them all as Logan sulked on the ground by Max's helmet, not knowing what to say. Now that they knew who he was, he still didn't know who they were and it made him uncomfortable. He too, was wondering why he had been turned into the Black Power ranger when there already was one.

Commander Vannick bust into the gym then, before the rangers could begin to question Max. The commander nodded his head at Max in acknowledgment before turning his sights to Logan on the ground. The rangers took this as a sign that Max was good and wondered why the commander had come all this way. He normally did not show up to fights.

"Logan, I know-." The Commander began, but Logan cut him off. Logan had read his mind the second he had entered the gym and knew that the Commander knew what he had done and wanted him punished for it. But Logan was having none of it. He was tired of following orders, of feeling weak, and now of being replaced by this new guy.

"No way." Logan snarled at the Commander. "You think you can just replace me and get away with it? I don't think so. I needed more power so that I could prove to you all that I was the best!" Logan now directed his rant at the rest of his team, who simply stood there, as they had no idea what was going on.

"You can't take my power away. It's mine now!" Logan looked around the room wildly, reading minds, looking for any sign of support. All he could read though, was confusion and a growing concern over his intentions. He yelled in rage and punched the ground, leaving a dent in the shiny hardwood floor.

He took one last look around at them all and teleported out.

There was an eerie silence in the gym after Logan left, as the rangers had no idea what they had just witnessed or why. They all looked to the Commander. Commander Vannick signed and rubbed his hand over his unshaven face. He opened his mouth to explain to the others what had just occurred when he was again cut off, this time by the sound of terrified screaming coming from outside.

"Cyclone is back." Andrew stated, "Max, put your helmet back on, we're going to need your help with this." Max nodded and did as he was told, following the rangers as they ran out the emergency exist to find the monster.

"Paige, come back!" Commander Vannick yelled after them. He had not had time to warn Paige that her powers were depleted. Now she was going outside to fight and all of his visions would come true.

Outside, the rangers spotted Cyclone immediately behind the school by the baseball diamond. This time there were no kids around, so they stood in a line side by side and shot their blasters directly at the monster. Cyclone took hit after hit and fell to the ground, the colorful clothes on the monster now full of holes and scorch marks. The rangers paused in their firing, but Cyclone began to laugh from the ground as he sat up a second later, barely harmed.

"Do you know why they named me Cyclone?" Cyclone asked the rangers, laughing again and raising his arms up. Dust and dirt from the ground around him began swirling up into the air, mixing with the wind. Cyclone aimed the dust clouds directly at the rangers, trapping them in the swirls of dirt.

"Jared!" Andrew yelled through the dust, his hands in front of his face, trying to wipe the blinding dirt from his mask as the rangers beside him did the same. "Try to run through it!"

Jared managed use his super speed to run far enough to break free of the dust storm, and immediately began using his blaster on the monster to distract its attentions from his friends. Sure enough, it worked. Once the monster realized that Jared had managed to escape the dust storm, it had stopped the storm and reached for its own laser gun.

The rangers were still wiping the dust from their masks while holding their blasters as leftover dirt from the cloud rained down onto their heads. Jared and the monster began trading blasts when Cyclone got Jared directly in his stomach, causing him to double over.

Cyclone laughed at the Blue ranger on the ground and turned his sights back on the dusty rangers. As if in slow motion, Cyclone pressed the trigger and the rangers watched transfixed, as a brilliant blue ray of light came out of the gun and hit Paige squarely in the chest. Still in slow motion, she seemed to glow with the eerie blue laser light for a moment as she was thrown through the air. Her Pink power ranger suit exploded off of her in a dazzling array of pink light. The rangers watched her, frozen and horrified, as her eyes closed and she fell to the ground, her long hair blowing freely in the wind around her. She lay in the grass on her back, in her street clothes, motionless.

"No!" Andrew shouted, as time sped back up for them and he rushed to aid his fallen friend, desperately trying to figure out why her powers had failed her. The others ran to Paige as well, as Cyclone was transported by teleportation back to the Emperor's ship, laughing manically the whole time, his job done for the day.

The rangers crowded around Paige on the ground, staring down at her pale face.

"Is she...?" Britney couldn't finish her question, the possible answer to horrible to say out loud.

"Maybe she'll be able to heal herself," Andrew said, touching Paige's cold cheek and then her neck, searching for a pulse.

"Paige?" Max whispered, surprised that the girl he had saved in the park had been a ranger.

Commander Vannick ran up to them then, his brown meditation sandals still on his feet as he had forgotten to change in his rush to leave the command center. He had been watching the fight from a classroom window, knowing he couldn't stop what was about to happen. With Paige's power levels lowered as they were, he knew that there was a chance she might not recover from the alien attack.

"We need to bring her back to the base immediately." Commander Vannick stated quietly.

Andrew nodded and they all teleported back to the base, Andrew holding onto Paige, Brit holding onto Max and Jared holding onto the Commander.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9 – The Aftermath

It was a month later and the school year had just ended. Summer break had begun and the rangers were all doing their own things, as there had been no serious monster attacks since Cyclone.

Logan had not yet resurfaced from wherever he had gone to hide. He had missed his exams and his parents thought he had simply run away. There were missing posters with his school picture on them all over town, with promises of rewards if anyone with information came forward to his family or the police. Commander Vannick had tasked Britney with the job of using her superior tracking abilities to find him and bring him back. She told her parents that she would be road tripping across the US for the summer with friends, so they wouldn't worry.

Jared had gotten a part time job at a local ice cream parlor to appease his parents, as they had been pressuring him to get a summer job to "learn about responsibility". He along with Andrew would be Britney's back up's if she found Logan and needed assistance bringing him in. They would teleport to her at a moment's notice if needed.

Andrew had become very quiet and reflective during the last month. He was angry with himself for not seeing signs of Logan's anger and distress. They had been friends for a long time and Andrew used to say that he knew him well, but he hadn't seen this betrayal coming. He had had no idea what Logan was thinking or feeling. He lost a little bit of faith in himself as a team leader and joined a summer basketball league to get some perspective on his life and regain confidence in his abilities as a leader.

Paige's power had not recovered since the battle with Cyclone and it had taken her a long time to heal from her wounds, so the Commander had tasked her with training and guiding Max, the newest member of the team and exploring ways to boost her powers back to their original levels, without resorting to stealing another rangers' morpher.

Max had finally explained his origin as a power ranger and his special power. A few months back, long after his 16th birthday, he had received his black morpher along with a "watch" that allowed him to teleport and beeped whenever a monster was on Earth, in a plain package that was left on his doorstep. He had only morphed a few times as he was unsure why he had this ability and he knew that other rangers (especially the black one) already existed to fight monsters. Jared had tweaked the watch so that it had communication abilities with the other rangers, as their communicators did. Jared had also had to tweak all the communicators so that their communications were on another "channel" as he had put it, in case Logan was listening in and planning some kind of revenge against Max for taking his place on the team. Max did not have the telepathic powers that Logan had as he could not read minds; his special power instead was the ability to sense danger. Whether it was a monster or simply an angry person intent on causing harm, Max was able to sense this and the direction it was coming from roughly 100 yards away. Little by little the range he could sense was growing longer and Command Vannick had confirmed that his powers would grow the more he used them.

Commander Vannick had been researching past rangers from the journals he and his father had kept over the past 1000 years, detailing ranger traits and past battles to see if anything like this Logan situation had happened before. In one of his father's early journals, kept in a trunk in Commander Vannick's room at the Command Center, one of the past rangers had had a similar experience to Logan's. The Red ranger, roughly 850 years ago, had been swayed by evil thanks to Emperor Kornos's evil influence. A spell he had been put under had caused this Red ranger to become power hungry and a dictator rather than a team leader. The Red ranger had turned on his teammates during a battle when they had not followed his explicit instructions and then ultimately left them to join the Emperor's evil team. His fellow rangers had not been able to break the spell in time and a terrible battle had ensued that ended in the Red rangers' death. After this entry in the journal, a few spells were listed that stated if created earlier they may have saved that rangers life. One of them was a spell to strip a ranger of his or her powers and another spell was for a memory wipe to erase all memories and knowledge of the power rangers and their secrets.

Once Logan was found and brought back, Commander Vannick was prepared to use both spells on him immediately. As he was not a sorcerer like his father, the Commander was unsure if the spells would work for him, so he scoured the journals trying to find a small, simple spell he could try out. If he was unable to do the spell, his only hope to save Logan would be to find his father and get his assistance.

The second week of July, all of the rangers gathered with the Commander in the garage of the Command Center. Both Britney and the Commander were packed and ready to head out on their separate quests to locate Logan and the Sorcerer, respectively. The Commander had not been able to perform even simple spells, so finding his father had become his number one priority.

Britney had her brown curls neatly pulled back in a braid that ran down her back and a yellow tank top on over her stylishly ripped jean shorts that were paired with tan colored hiking boots. She was packing her yellow duffel bag into the Commanders jeep, as the Commander would be teleporting himself around using a new communicator made especially for him, to travel to other lands.

Britney hugged each of the rangers in turn once the jeep was packed with her supplies, saying things like," Don't worry, I'll find him", "I'll be back in no time" and," I'll call you if I need help".

The rangers and Commander stood behind the jeep as Brit got in it and pressed a button that opened the hidden door that led out to the mountains. It was just past sunset, as Brit had hoped to leave the mountain area under the cover of darkness so as not to be seen.

Once she had driven out of sight, bumping down the mountain in the black jeep, Andrew closed the hidden door and the remaining rangers all turned to the Commander who would be leaving next.

"Before I leave, I need to say that I am very proud of you all. I know this has been a difficult time and that Logan is your friend, but I promise you that we will find him and help him. I will be back as soon as I can and I will keep you updated with my progress. Good luck rangers and may the power protect you." With a final nod to them, the Commander, who was dressed in black pants and a long sleeved grey shirt, teleported himself out. His only supplies were in a small black backpack that he had thrown over his left shoulder before leaving.

Andrew, Paige, Jared and Max all left the garage and went their separate ways after that, not having much to say and feeling sad that they would not be able to help Brit or the Commander more in their searches.

Andrew left the Command Center and headed to the high schools' outside basketball court, where he would be able to take his mind off of Logan by focusing on something he truly enjoyed. He hoped there would be some guys hanging around so they could start a game. He was dressed in his black basketball shorts and a red t-shirt, with his favorite worn basketball in his backpack, ready for some fun.

Jared went home to get a good night's sleep as he had work in the morning. As he was getting ready for bed his parents told him how proud they were of him and that this job would look good on his College applications as well as take his mind off of his missing friend. Jared nodded in thanks and tried not to dread the coming morning.

Paige stayed at the Command Center most of the time now, using different alien gadgets to try to get a power boost that would stick. So far, she had been able to get a boost of power for a brief amount of time, but nothing that would stick permanently. Her long blond hair was always up in a messy bun now and she pretty much lived in her light pink sweatpants. She had stopped caring about her appearance as much, as she was so focused on getting her full powers back so that she could continue to be a product member of the team. If a big fight were to come, the other rangers would need her by their sides.

Max focused on training in the Command Centers gym and honing his danger senses. He knew that if Logan showed up, he would be coming for him. Max would need to be prepared.

It was going to be a long summer.

-The End-


End file.
